Berkeley Symphony Announces 09-10 Season

Repertoire to be performed include works by Barber, Bartok, Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius and Stravinsky, as well as a recent work by Jorg Widmann.

“To me, the season represents a first reaction of my musical personality to the culture and community of Berkeley,” Carneiro stated. “I wish to create a sense of trust with the community, introducing composers that appeal to me but still respecting the references of the past the audience has had.”

Opening Carneiro’s tenure on Thursday, October 15, 2009 at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall are works by two Berkeley composers with whom Carneiro is well acquainted: John Adams and Gabriela Lena Frank. Adams describes The Chairman Dances as an “out-take” from his opera Nixon in China, depicting a foxtrot between Chairman Mao and his bride. Frank’s Peregrinos (Pilgrims) consists of five movements, each inspired by stories she gathered from Latino immigrants. Opening night concludes with Bela Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, so named because each section of the orchestra is treated in a soloistic and virtuosic fashion.

The music of Steven Stucky and his influences are featured on Thursday, December 3, 2009. Stucky has been associated with the LA Philharmonic for over 20 years and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2005. He was Ernest Bloch Professor at UC Berkeley and currently teaches at Cornell University.

Stucky’s Radical Light is paired with the Symphony No. 7 of Jean Sibelius, a work it was commissioned to accompany. “Lament” is from Stucky’s oratorio August 4, 1964, the date of two pivotal events in the Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson: the discovery of three slain civil rights workers which led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, and the Gulf of Tonkin Incident which led to the escalation of the Vietnam War. Closing the performance will be the suite from the ballet The Firebird by Igor Stravinksy, who Carneiro notes to be “one of the pillars of what we are doing today with music, a reference for all composers into the 21st century and certainly for Steve.”

The program on Thursday, February 11, 2010 opens with Berkeley composer Paul Dresher’s Cornucopia, which was premiered by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra with John Adams conducting. Five Images After Sappho by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Carneiro’s former mentor who steps down this year as Music Director of the LA Philharmonic, is a chamber setting with soprano solo of fragmentary texts by the ancient Greek poet. Soprano soloist will be Jessica Rivera, who performed the premiere of John Adams’s latest opera The Flowering Tree and is also known for her performances of the works of Osvaldo Golijov. The Symphony No.3 of Ludwig van Beethoven closes the program.

Berkeley Symphony’s Zellerbach Hall season closes on Thursday, April 1, 2010 with Con brio, a concert overture by the young German composer Jorg Widmann. Completing the program are Samuel Barber’s Knoxville, Summer of 1915 again featuring soprano Jessica Rivera, and the Symphony No. 1 by Johannes Brahms.

Composers scheduled to be present at performances include Adams, Frank, Stucky, and Dresher. Carneiro observes that “relationships with living composers—who will be around not only for concerts but for rehearsals—are important as they inspire the orchestra and myself to perform and ultimately to serve the music and our audience better. I think of these relationships in the long term, as we want to find ways for these artists to connect deeply with the community of Berkeley.”

In addition, Carneiro and the members of the orchestra will work with four Emerging Composers in Residence as part of Berkeley Symphony’s Under Construction new music series, Sundays at 7 PM on October 18, December 6, and February 7 at St. John’s Presbyterian Church of Berkeley. -- www.berkeleysymphony.org